European Commission Representation in

Poland

Warsaw, 26th May 2014

Alcohol interlocks: towards a European approach for the fight against drink-

driving

Ilyas Daoud

Project ManagerEuropean Transport Safety Council

Introduction to ETSC

• 47 organisations from across Europe under one unique umbrella promoting science-based transport safety measures at EU level.

• More than 200 experts contributing to ETSC’s Reviews, Policy Papers, Newsletters, Positions, Lectures, Press Releases, Year Books, etc.

• The European Commission, member organisations, Member States and corporate sponsors are

funding our work

A science-based approach to road safety policy

Monitoring EU transport

safety policy

Preventing

Drink Driving

Road Safety Performance

Index (PIN)

Ranking EU countries‘

performances

Preventing

Speeding Praising Best

Practice in Road

Safety ‘At’ Work

and ‘To’ Work

Developing projects

on priority areasPromoting best practices

Developing recommendations

ETSC Activities

Preventing

Cyclists’ deaths

SMARTSafer Mobility Across Road Transport

The scope of the problem

• 27,700 people killed in road collisions in the EU in 2012

• Around 313,000 reported by the police as seriously

injured

• 1 death, 11 serious injuries, 40 slight injuries

• Huge socio-economic costs (2% of EU GDP or 250 bln

EUR)

• 358,000 men and 113,000 women have been killed in the

EU27 in the past decade.

Progress in reducing road deaths since

2001

Latvia – 68%

Spain – 67%

Denmark – 61%

Lithuania – 57%

France – 55%

EU – 49%

Belgium - 48%

ETSC (2013), 7th Road Safety PIN Report

Latvia – 68%

Spain – 67%

Denmark – 61%

Portugal – 56%

France – 51%

Poland – 35%

EU – 49%

Road Safety PerformanceNumber of road deaths per million inhabitants - No country with more than 100 deaths per million

inhabitants

UK 32Sweden 34Norway 34The Netherlands 40Denmark 40

Malta 22UK 29NO/DK/SE 30Ireland 35

ETSC (2013), 7th Road Safety PIN Report

Belgium

2001 145

2010 78

2012 69

Malta 22

UK 29

NO/DK/SE 30

Poland

2001 145 2010 1022012 93

Drink driving in Europe

• Up to 1.5 - 2% of kilometres driven in the EU

are driven with an illegal Blood Alcohol

Concentration

• Of the 28,000 deaths in road collisions in the

EU in 2012, less than 15% were attributed

by Member States to drink driving

• But according to EC estimates, between

19% and 28% of all road deaths across the

EU are alcohol-related

• If so, ETSC estimates that around 6500

deaths would have been prevented yearly

if all drivers had obeyed the law on drink

driving

Attributing deaths to drink driving

• Each Member State has its own way of attributing a road

death to drink driving

• “Any death occurring as a result of road accident in

which any active participant was found with blood

alcohol level above the legal limit” SafetyNet

recommended definition – (BG, CY, CZ, DK, FI, FR,

PL, PT, SI)

• In 2010, 7 countries attributed fewer than 6% while 5

countries attributed more than 30%

• So it is meaningless to compare numbers attributed to

drink driving in different countries

• But we can look at how the numbers of deaths attributed

to drink driving have changed over recent years

Drink driving enforcement

Country

Checks

per 1,000 population

Percentage

above legal limit

Country

Checks

per 1,000

population

Percentage

above legal

limit

FI 429 0,9% HU 120 3,6%

NO 367 0,2% ES 114 1,8%

SE 287 0,6% PT 106 3,8%

CY 217 5,3% EE 105 0,7%

SI 198 4,7% PL 88 4,9%

FR 173 3,4% LT 40 1.7%

EL 161 2,1% DK 36 6.7%

IE 126 1,9% IT 27 2.5%

AT 122 3,7% GB 14 11.6%

Numbers of

roadside alcohol

checks per 1,000

population and

percentage

above the legal

BAC limit

in the most

recent year

(usually 2010)

ETSC (2012), Drink Driving: Towards Zero Tolerance

Awareness

Eurobarometer, Oct. 2010

• On average only 27%

of respondents knew

the legal BAC limit

• 36% gave a wrong

answer

• 37% did not know

BAC limits across the EU

• An increasing number of

countries are lowering their

BAC limits to be in line with

EU recommendation 2001 on

maximum BAC legal limit

• 18 EU countries apply lower

BAC for novice drivers

(0.0 – 0.2)

• 18 EU countries apply lower

BAC for professional drivers

(0.0 to 0.2 BAC)

Standard BAC BAC Commercial drivers

BAC Novice Drivers

Austria 0.5 0.1 0.1Belgium 0.5 0.5 0.5Bulgaria 0.5 0.5 0.5Cyprus 0.5 0.5 0.5Czech 0.0 0.0 0.0

Denmark 0.5 0.5 0.5Estonia 0.2 0.2 0.2Finland 0.5 0.5 0.5France 0.5 0.5 (0.2 bus drivers) 0.5

Germany 0.5 0.0 0.0Greece 0.5 0.2 0.2

Hungary 0.0 0.0 0.0Ireland 0.5 0.2 0.2

Italy 0.5 0.0 0.0Latvia 0.5 0.5 0.2

Lithuania 0.4 0.2 0.2Luxembourg 0.5 0.1 0.1

Malta 0.8 0.8 0.8Netherlands 0.5 0.2 0.2

Poland 0.2 0.2 0.2Portugal 0.5 0.5 0.5Romania 0.0 0.0 0.0Slovakia 0.0 0.0 0.0Slovenia 0.2 0.0 0.0

Spain 0.5 0.3 0.3Sweden 0.2 0.2 0.2

UK 0.8 0.8 0.8

ETSC Policy against Drink Driving

Investigating and promoting a

systemic approach in the fight

against drink-driving.

Contribute to reducing

alcohol-related road

deaths and injuries

through the identification

and promotion of best

practice in both policy

and advocacy.

ETSC recommendations to the EU

• Propose a Directive setting a zero tolerance for

drink driving

• Encourage Member States to prepare national

enforcement plans with targets including drink driving

• Work towards standardised definitions of

drink-driving and alcohol-related collisions

• Introduce uniform standards for alcohol interlocks

in the EU and help all Member States to introduce them

• Introduce alcohol interlocks firstly for repeat offenders

and professional drivers and in due course

in non-intrusive form for all vehicles

Recommendations to Member States

• Intensify enforcement of laws by setting minimum

targets for alcohol checks of the driving population

(e.g. one driver in 5 should be checked each year)

• Introduce systematic breath-testing in all Police

checks related to driving or collisions

• Introduce rehabilitation programmes and higher

penalties to address recidivism

• Organise regular nationwide campaigns raising

awareness of drink-driving risk

• Develop the use of alcohol interlocks in rehabilitation

Alcohol interlocks

• In rehabilitation programmes

• High level and recidivist offenders

• Alcohol addicted

• As a quality assurance

mechanism in commercial

transport

• In school buses

• Emergency

• Day care transportation

• Others

Sweden

Recidivist drivers

• First law introducing a nationwide pilot

programme approved in 1998

• Two years (including treatment for

alcohol problems)

• Costs borne by the driver ( US$

5,750)

• 13% of convicted drunk drivers

joined the programme and half

completed it successfully

• New legislation approved in

December 2010 applying to all drink

driving offenders: 2 years for high risk

groups (recidivists and > 1.0 BAC)

and 1 year for the others.

• The law entered into force as from the

1st of January 2012

Commercial drivers

• Started in 1999 with a taxi company, a

bus company and a trucking company.

• As of 2003 many municipalities started

installing alcohol interlocks in their

vehicles

• The Swedish Government committed to

have 75% of governmental vehicles

equipped with an alcohol interlock by

2012

• So far more than 80,000 alcohol

interlocks have been installed in

Sweden for commercial driving.

• Since end of 2012 all school transport

vehicles are fitted with alcolocks too.

Finland

Recidivist drivers

• Implemented in July 2008 (first a trial

for 3 years)

• Voluntary after a DUI offence (instead

of a ban) Court decides the lenght

(between 1 – 3 years)

• National code 111 on the driving

licence

• About 50 new participants each month

• Since August 2011, mandatory in

school and day care transportation ( if

transport organised by a municipality,

school, state etc)

• Installed in more than 8000 taxies and

busses

Observations

• Since 19th January 2013 doctors are

able to “recommend” an interlock to a

driver who would not obtain or maintain

a driving licence otherwise: the police

issues a driving licence with a national

code 113 for the use of an interlock

• 2013 evaluation of 1500 participants –

Alcohol interlocks have prevented more

than 12,000 attempts to drive with an

illegal BAC. On average, 30% of drivers

would become recidivists. For people

who have benefited from a

rehabilitation programme with interlock,

the recidivism rate is less than 6%

only.

ETSC Alcohol interlock barometer

Pilot projectongoing

Legislationinpreparation

Legislation

inimplementation

Rehabilitation

CommercialTransport

Voluntary use incommercialtransport

Austria x x xBelgium x x xDenmark x x Finland x x x xFrance x x xGermany x x x xNetherlands x xNorway x x xSweden x x x xSwitzerland x xDE/EE

ES/IE

LV/IT/SI/UK

x

Key elements

- A reliable device meeting Cenelec EN

50436-1 requirements - Certified body

installing the interlocks

- A program manager

- A reporting process to the Authority

- A follow-up for the participants

- Alternative or/and Additional sanction?

Duration, regularity of meetings, level, costs, follow-up,

support the participant

Framework to be adjusted: Recidivists/ High risk drivers/ First offenders?

• A monitoring program to ensure technical maintenance, inspection and

calibration equipment monthly or bimonthly, also including reporting of

abnormal events to the agency providing the program management

under the control of the authority concerned (Justice, administration of

driver's license as appropriate).

• A reporting system visible on the driver's license stating that the driver is

required to operate a vehicle equipped with the interlock, so as to

prevent the use of another vehicle during the program.

Developing an effective program

Multiplication of different codes!

112

105 (valid until 2014)

111

No specific

code but

additional

certificate

107

103

• Hard visibility abroad

• Need for harmonisation

• Other codes to come..

(ES, SI, UK, DE, DK, IE,

etc)

2013 EC impact assessment

• One of priorities of EU is prevention of driving

under influence of alcohol. Commission wants to

examine the possibility to make alcohol interlock

devices mandatory for certain categories of

drivers or vehicles.

Possible scope of measures:

• Compulsory installation in all motor vehicles or vehicles of

certain type, e.g. heavy goods vehicles

• Compulsory installation in certain vehicles according to

their use, e.g. school busses, dangerous goods trucks,

taxis

• Compulsory use by specific user groups, e.g. multi

offenders, problem drinkers

• And/or harmonisation of technical standards and other

operational aspects

MEP Koch Report on Road Safety

“Recommends, as a reintegration measure, the

fitting of alcohol interlocks to the vehicles of road

users who already have more than one drink-

driving conviction”

“Recommends that fitting of alcohol interlocks (...)

to all new types of commercial passenger and

goods transport vehicles be made compulsory;

calls on the Commission to prepare by 2013 a

proposal for a Directive for the fitting of alcohol

interlocks, including the relevant specifications for

its technical implementation”

An approach endorsed by the Council

Council Conclusions (in response to the EC

PO) on road safety:

“New technical solutions of which the effect is

proven can contribute to make it possible to

deal with problems like speeding and impaired

driving (such as driving under the influence of

alcohol, drugs and fatigue)”

More on ETSC ?

• Safety Monitor

• Drink Driving Monitor

• Speed Monitor

• Reviews & Policy Papers

• Fact Sheets

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DZIĘKUJĘ!

Ilyas Daoud

Project Manager

European Transport Safety

Council